The federal government spends trillions of dollars a year on programs, but it doesn't have an inventory of all federal programs despite a 2011 law that says they must be tracked.
Part of the problem is government agencies don’t agree on what constitutes a federal program, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
"This lack of a common definition – or at least a way to collect and present comparable information for programs that are defined differently – has hindered past efforts to develop an inventory," according to the report.